Finally saw Revenge of the Sith today. On an IMAX, which was sweet. The theater was surprisingly crowded for a 10 a.m. Tuesday showing a week after opening day. Lots of people there had obviously skivved off work to go see it. But it was a nice crowd of adult SW geeks so I felt right at home. And despite the cynicism I've adopted about the whole affair, I got all goose-bumpy as the opening chords of the score sounded. This was, after all, the last time I'll ever watch a Star Wars movie for the first time.

It wasn't as bad as I'd feared it would be. Certainly better than the first two. In fact, I'd say, given George Lucas' insurmountable limitations as a writer/director, it was probably as good as that movie was likely to get.

Not to say it was good, exactly, either. I was more impressed with the actual mechanics of the plot than I thought I'd be, but Lucas' poor storytelling skills stepped all over most of the dramatic moments and drained the life out of any character that threatened to be mildly interesting. It almost makes me cry to think of how amazing this story could have been if Lucas had only turned over the reigns to someone who was actually, you know, good at this stuff.

chaodai ("Lost" writer and LJ-er extraordinaire) does a much better job than I ever could of articulating just what is so wrong with this trilogy, so go read his review here, if you're interested.

I won't go into a laundry list of problems I had with the movie, because they are numerous and it would bore anyone who isn't a complete Star Wars freak (and probably many of you who are).

I will say I'm a little miffed that after saying repeatedly that he's making these movies for kids, Lucas goes and makes the end of this one so disgusting and gory that kids who've fallen in love with the other movies can't (or shouldn't) see it. I appreciated the overall darker tone, but there was way too much unnecessary lingering on Charcoal!Anakin that could easily have been eliminated and made the movie appropriate for a wider audience.

The munchkin actually burst into tears when I told her that she wouldn't be able to see it, even when it comes out on DVD. "But it's Staaaaarrrr Waaaarrrssss!!!" she wailed pathetically. Thanks, George. Thanks very much. Now I'm gonna have to figure out some way to edit those shots out, something I swore I'd never stoop to doing.

I was also pretty bummed that my main Jedi grrl, Aayla Secura, met such an abrupt and undignified end. I mean, I knew she was going to have to bite it, but I was hoping she'd go out in a blaze of glory, or at least a moderate puff of force lightning.

My boyfriend Obi Wan was still worth the price of admission, though.

Beware, because there is a good chance that I will write some Jedi fic after I finish this Angel stuff. There is a whole world of extended universe canon out there and I have an itch to roll around in it a bit.

In other news, the mom-in-law is arriving tomorrow to help me finish clearing out my mom's house. I had a bit of nervous breakdown a few weeks ago and confessed to Mr. Sus that I just couldn't pretend anymore that I was able to do it and it was making me crazy to have it hanging over my head and I needed HELP or I was going to completely lose my marbles.

So he called his mom and she generously agreed to hop on a plane and come down and help me power through the last of it. Hopefully, by the end of this weekend, I'll have gone through everything in my mom's house, packed up all the stuff I want to keep, and organized the rest for the estate sale. And then maybe I'll be able to get back a little bit of the sanity that's slowly been ebbing away from me the last few months.

Lucas goes and makes the end of this one so disgusting and gory that kids who've fallen in love with the other movies can't (or shouldn't) see it. I appreciated the overall darker tone, but there was way too much unnecessary lingering on Charcoal!Anakin that could easily have been eliminated and made the movie appropriate for a wider audience.

YES. I totally agree! And what irked me even more was how much they tiptoed around the sexuality, but had no troubles setting someone on fire? The PG-13 rating did not seem appropriate for the material and the way they portrayed it, but I'm still not sure whether it would have been better with a different director/writer, if it would only have been solved by an AA or R rating. George Lucas seems so very out of touch with his own material. :/

You know, I was fine with all the various appendages that were cut off throughout the movie. But at end, the way the camera just stayed on Anakin with the burning and the screaming and the writhing and the blackening... it was waaaaay excessive. Up till that moment I even would have been fine with letting the kid see it. But that was just Too Much.

And then the birth was so totally artificial and staged as if they were afraid to show a woman in labor because that would be DIRTY. *eyeroll*

My most constant thought after seeing it was "Well, now we can get some really good fic out of the Sith-Hope 18 year time span." I totally get all your points and now that you've seen it, you can check out my rant about the EW interview with Lucas.

I'm glad your MiL is coming to help. That's a really hard thing to do. Good luck with it.

I forgot to add on the Star Wars front: Lucas Films was the biggest pain in the ASS to deal with. I'm so glad it's over. Now we just have to worry about them being a pain in the ass for the DVD release.